Meet One of Our Members!

Just talking with Nancy Sturgeon makes you want to grab a needle and create something! She admits she has always been a stitcher (needlepoint, cross stitch, etc.) Her home attests to that, filled as it is with her amazing antique and reproduction pieces of early needlework samplers and a host of quilting projects in various stages of completion. She first became interested in quilting when she took a class with Roz Swanstrom at Naper Settlement many years ago followed later by more classes until she was “sucked into it.” Her favorite projects include traditional patterns made with scrappy fabrics, and she loves reading about various quilting techniques on line. Her favorite quilting blog is Bonnie K. Hunter’s at quiltville.blogspot.com.

Nancy’s energizing sewing space is punctuated by the many unfinished bargain projects she’s acquired at the guild’s January rummage sale. Just watching her eyes light up as she describes her ideas for many of the remnants is great fun. One of her favorite quilting accomplishments is the completion of an exciting "Tie Quilt" that displays her father’s ties with their labels, linings and many men’s shirt fabrics included in the blocks.

Growing up in LaGrange, Illinois, Nancy, her husband and two daughters came to Naperville in 1977. She learned about RQG through local publicity and has served as newsletter editor for two years and is now working on publicity. An enthusiastic long-arm quilter using an Innova machine, she hopes to increase her skills in free-hand quilting and is grateful for the Northern Illinois Longarm Guild and an Innova group of about fifteen quilters who "speak the same language" she does. When asked what new things she’d like to try, she was quick to say "thread painting."